B. Benson + A/Fam Follow-Up + Vids

I never got back to y'all after my Wednesday debacle. As you may recall, I had tickets to two shows on the same night and I didn't know what I was going to do. Well, I ended up attending pieces of both shows. It was pretty stressful, but I need the practice for SXSW when at any given moment there will be a billion bands I want to see all playing at once in different venues scattered across multiple zip codes. I went to the Parish room first Wednesday night. I only caught 1.5 songs from Warpaint but it was enough to make me want to seek them out when they're here for SX. Akron/Family went on afterward and they started their set out in a pretty low-key way. They started about 30 minutes later than I expected so I only got to hear them play 4-5 songs and I wasn't really feeling it. They were getting a little avant for my mood that evening and crowd was very chatty. I did manage to capture their opening tune in this sub-par video though.


Akron/Family - River video via YouTube


I left the Parish as soon as someone on Twitter posted that Brendan Benson was on stage at the Independent. Now, it's kind of unfair to compare B. Benson and Akron/Family since they are sooo different but it was a welcome shift for me on Wednesday night. Akron/Family challenges their audience to find the beauty and participate in the moment of the show experience. Brendan Benson churns out perfect pop-rock at break-neck speeds, effortlessly shifting from one beautiful melody to the next. Needless to say it was pleasant to not be challenged in a rock setting after having been awake for 10+ hours. I had never been to the Independent but I highly approve. It's pretty much a bare-bones warehouse space with a stage in the corner. The audience was pretty thin, the room was full but not packed tightly, so I was able to stroll right up to the stage.


Brendan Benson - A Whole Lot Better video via YouTube

Austin was Benson's last night of his current tour so he took the opportunity to do some cover songs in the encore. He ended up doing 3 different one, 2 of which I would have expected and 1 of which I didn't. Remember that song, "Who Sucked Out the Feeling?" Well, I had forgotten all about it until Brendan Benson covered it and apparently that's not an unusual cover for him since he also did it at his Daytrotter session. He also did a Graham Nash song as well as this one originally by Tom Petty.


Tom Petty - Listen To Your Heart video via YouTube

All in all both shows were good but completely different vibes. If I hadn't had other places to be I would have enjoyed Akron/Family more but I just wasn't feeling patient enough to be enveloped in their vibe that night. All of my Twitter friends who stayed for the whole show had nothing but positive things to say. Just goes to show, if you end in a big way that gets people involved that's what they'll take away from the show as a whole. They won't even remember that you played a shitty, slow, boring song as the SECOND song in your set?!?! Seriously, bands let's keep the energy high for the first 2-3 songs then you can dial it back and preserve your energy ok?

Speaking of dialing-it-back, don't forget you can catch the hypnotic sounds of Warpaint at SXSW2010.


Warpaint - Stars video via YouTube